Renee's Rule

From time to time you'll see me and my Canadian homegirl refer to a rule that originated on her Womanist Musings blog which I and other bloggers who talk about race, class and gender issues and their intersections adopted.  .

I call it 'Renee's Rule', and it basically states  If it ain't about you, don't make it about you.

It refers to the tendency of some white peeps in online discussions to get overly defensive when people of color start talking about their personal experiences dealing with the negative impacts of 'whiteness' and 'white supremacy' in their lives.   


So that we could have serious discussions on race and class that didn't get derailed or degenerate into comparisons of oppressions and stuck to 'just the facts',  Renee used to repeat that line on posts she wrote and in the comment discussion threads.  

I started calling it 'Renee's Rule' and surprisingly, the name has stuck. 


So after observing how well it worked most of the time to foster thoughtful dialogue on her blog and wanting the same thing in my comment sections.on those issues, I adopted it for TransGriot.


So the next time you see me write in a post 'Renee's Rule' applies, now you know what it is and how it got the name...